Emil

The decommissioning process for the Fukushima Daiichi site and surroundings is scheduled to be completed by 2051. It will require many innovations, and careful planning. Here are some of the details outlined at an event at the International Atomic Energy Agency's General Conference in Vienna.

What happened?

On 11 March 2011 a major earthquake struck Japan. It was followed by a 15-metre tsunami which disabled the power supply and cooling of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and all three cores largely melted in the first three days. More than 100,000 people were evacuated from the area as a precaution because of radioactive releases in the wake of the accident. After two weeks, the three reactors were stable and official ‘cold shutdown condition’ was announced in mid-December. According to World Nuclear Association, there have been no deaths or cases of radiation sickness from the nuclear accident but there have been 2313 disaster-related deaths among evacuees from Fukushima prefecture, which are in addition to the 19,500 killed by the earthquake and tsunami. Since the accident, work has been taking place to safely decommission the reactors and the surrounding areas, with large areas of the evacuated areas now back open for people to live in. The air dose rate is now similar, or lower, than major cities, the Japan-hosted event Reconstruction and Decommissioning in Fukushima heard.

It has meant that the evacuation area which covered 81,000 people's homes in August 2013 had been cut to 7000 people's homes by April this year and the intention is to lift all the evacuation areas "even if it will take many years to do so".

The decommissioning process so far

The decommissioning of any nuclear power plant is a long process, so it is no surprise that the timescales for decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi plant are lengthy, with the completion currently scheduled to take place up to 40 years after cold shutdown - so by 2051. The different phases in the decommissioning roadmap start with the post-accident period to achieving cold shutdown in 2011, and then a two-year period to November 2013 when the start of fuel removal began. The third, and final phase, began in September with the start of trial fuel debris removal in unit 2.

Fuel removal

The situation in each reactor is different. Fuel removal from used fuel pools was completed for unit 4 in December 2014 and for unit 3 in 2021. The aim is to start fuel removal from unit 2 this year and for unit 1 from 2027/28.

There is also the extremely complicated task of removing the fuel debris from the reactors, with a fair amount of uncertainty about the distribution in each of the reactors.

A trial process began last month, trying to remove fuel debris in unit 2, using a long narrow grabber tool.

The plan is to sample granular fuel debris weighing 3 grams or less by lowering an end effector (gripper) with a camera mounted on it, to the bottom. Before the start of the process in September, the telescopic-arm-type equipment was tested in mock up facilities set up by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) in Naraha.

Yasutaka Denda, from Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), explained that a few kilograms a day would be collected - but the process would also provide important information about how the accident progressed, as well as information about the location of the fuel debris.

Larger scale fuel debris removal

Kosuke Ono, Executive Director, Head of the Decommissioning Strategy Office, Nuclear Damage Compensation and Decommissioning Facilitation Corporation (NDF) explained the options in the selection process for methods to further expand the scale of fuel debris retrieval “that will determine the success or failure to complete longterm decommissioning”.

The government, NDF and Tepco are all involved in the process. Full-scale fuel debris retrieval starts with unit 3 and he said the “property and distribution of fuel debris greatly varied depending on the accident progression” - and comprised a likely mix of fuel rods still in their original form, fallen gravel-like fuel pellets, melted and resolidified metal/ceramic materials and fission products stuck in narrow parts.

He said there were three methods considered - the partial submersion method.

He said that this was the easiest method to understand, but stressed that it would need a lot of planning and would need remote operation of equipment.

The second option was the submersion method. He described this method as "like making a big bathtub and sinking the reactor building into it - water is a very effective radiation shield and this method may be faster than the partial submersion method". However there was no engineering confirmation about whether it was possible to build such a huge structure and what would happen if there were leaks, so this option has not been selected - although a method using water as a radiation shield could be required if the partial submersion method does not work.

The third option considered was the filling and solidification method. This method uses mortar/cement - this has been the least studied and there are on-going studies of which material could be used.

He said that more information was needed about the situation inside the reactors, but the recommendation at this stage has been to start design studies and research and development utilising the partial submission method. Micro-drones and endoscopic investigations would be used to build up a picture of inside the reactor vessels.

There would need to be a new cover on unit 3 for retrieval to ensure no release of radioactive material during the process and a new building constructed to store the fuel debris. There would also need to be a number of nearby buildings demolished, which would themselves take a long time, to ensure the highest standards of safety.

A further round of public explanatory sessions is planned to be held in Fukushima Prefecture in November and December to outline the fuel debris retrieval methods and how it would work.

Among the technological innovations that will be needed, will be a way to investigate the inside of the reactor pressure vessel - how to drill a hole so as to be able to see inside and to improve the environment inside.

Off-site environmental remediation

Yoshitomo Mori, from Japan’s Environment Ministry, said that by March 2018, 100 municipalities in 8 prefectures had had full scale decontamination completed. He said that since 2014, when it started as a small-scale pilot project, approximately 13.76 million cubic metres of soil and waste had been removed and transported to the Interim Storage Facility.

The Interim Storage Facility was built to manage and store removed soil and waste arising from decontamination, until final disposal outside Fukushima Prefecture, which is stipulated in Japanese law to be completed within 30 years (by March 2045). The facility occupies about 1600 hectares.

He stressed the importance of recycling the removed soil, which was equivalent to the volume of 11 Tokyo Domes (the baseball stadium). This scale, he said, showed the need for some form of volume reduction. About 75% of the soil has relatively low radioactivity and is to be recycled in lower levels in public works projects. There are a number of different demonstration projects taking place.

There have also been pot plants placed in national ministries using recycled soil as part of the efforts to build public understanding of its safety. Studies have been taking place on selecting technology, and a site, for final disposal, and from 2025 they will “proceed to processes for studies and coordination related to the selection of a final disposal site”.

Water management - the ALPs treated water

The highest profile issue in the past few years relating to Fukushima has been the issue of the contaminated water - in part used to cool melted nuclear fuel - treated by the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), which removes most of the radioactive contamination, with the exception of tritium. This treated water is currently stored in tanks on site. Japan announced in April 2021 it planned to discharge ALPS-treated water into the sea over a period of about 30 years. It started to discharge the water on 24 August last year and has completed the release of eight batches, a total of 62,400 cubic metres of water, with the ninth release beginning at the end of September.

The process has been overseen and is monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose Department of Nuclear Safety and Security's Director, Gustavo Caruso, gave a presentation outlining the work the agency had been doing, and said that the IAEA had concluded ahead of the first release that "the discharge of the ALPs treated water, as currently planned by Japan, will have a negligible impact on people and the environment" and was "consistent with relevant international safety standards". He said that IAEA measurements had confirmed the water release was safe and would continue to corroborate the Japanese data relating to the ALPS treated water discharge, and would continue to carry out independent tests to "help build confidence in Japan and beyond". Read more here on the IAEA's guide to ALPS treated water discharge.

Reconstruction is under way

So what about the future? With large areas of the previously evacuated area now decontaminated and open for people and businesses to move to, or return to, initiatives have begun to encourage them to do so, with a plan for "creative reconstruction: not simply reconstruction". The aim is to develop and build on specialist expertise and industries in areas such as robots, drones and decommissioning, as well as agriculture and the environment and research and development.

Moltex Energy Canada says new research demonstrates "the unique capability" of its Stable Salt Reactor - Wasteburner (SSR-W) to consume used nuclear fuel, supporting its ongoing development of a reactor that can "significantly reduce nuclear waste while producing clean energy".

The company said the peer-reviewed paper "highlights that the SSR-W - developed by teams in New Brunswick, Ontario, the UK, and the USA - can consume the vast majority of transuranic (TRU) elements present in used fuel bundles from Canada's Candu reactors".

It added: "These transuranic elements, which are created during the fission process, are radioactive for thousands of years. Unlike traditional reactors that accumulate these elements over time, the SSR-W is designed to consume them as fuel, presenting an innovative approach to reducing nuclear waste."

The paper presents results from modelling of this fuel cycle and demonstrates that with repeated fuel recycling an equilibrium can be reached where the concentration of all actinides is reduced during burnup in the reactor and actinide burning can continue indefinitely. The combination of this actinide burning in the reactor and the separation of most fission products in the recycling process results in a large reduction in waste volume, radiotoxicity and heat generation. The flexibility of the fuel cycle is also demonstrated, enabled by the recycling process, online refuelling and a fuel salt chemistry that allows variation of the conversion ratio.

The research concludes that an SSR-W fast spectrum molten salt reactor with a thermal power of 1200 MW eliminates 425 kg of actinides on an annual basis, or about 25 metric tonnes over its lifetime, with a fuel salt composition and isotopic vector that evolves to reach an equilibrium. At this point, the required top-up of TRUs from freshly recycled Candu fuel is constant and corresponds to the amount of TRU transmuted. The equilibrium is also visible with the isotopic vector of the discharged fuel, in which the proportion of plutonium-239 is significantly reduced compared with used Candu fuel.

In addition, the end-of-life core load could itself be recycled and used as start-of-life core load for a new SSR-W, therefore fully closing the nuclear fuel cycle.

"The SSR-W was specifically engineered to efficiently reuse and consume recycled nuclear waste," said Moltex CEO Rory O'Sullivan. "This breakthrough research, the result of years of collaboration, clearly demonstrates that ability."

He added: "Our fuel source is already sitting in stockpiles at nuclear sites around the country. This means we can tap into these resources to produce clean power for years to come."

Moltex is developing three unique technologies: the SSR-W that uses recycled nuclear waste as fuel; a WAste To Stable Salt (WATSS) process for recycling nuclear waste to produce SSR-W fuel; and GridReserve thermal energy storage tanks, enabling the SSR-W to act as a peaking plant.

The company plans to deploy the first WATSS unit at the Point Lepreau site in New Brunswick, where it also plans to deploy the first SSR-W by the early 2030s. NB Power's existing Candu reactor at Point Lepreau is expected to retire around 2040.

Maritime classification society the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) has launched what it says is the industry's first comprehensive rules for floating nuclear power plants.

ABS said the Requirements for Nuclear Power Systems for Marine and Offshore Applications has been developed "for classification requirements specific to design, construction, and survey of vessels fitted with nuclear power systems whose generated power is transferred or distributed to onboard industrial or adjacent facilities. Nuclear power service vessels are intended to operate nuclear power plant systems while temporarily or permanently stationed. This document is not applicable where nuclear power is used for propulsion or auxiliary services on self-propelled vessels".

"Uniquely, the requirements allow designers to consider any type of reactor technology and propose a framework for nuclear regulators to collaborate with flag administrations (the national authority with whom the vessel is registered) and ABS for complete regulatory oversight and license," ABS said.

ABS noted that it is the responsibility of nuclear regulators to license the reactor and applicable nuclear safety structures, systems and components. "These requirements and any use thereof does not replace the review, certification, licence, or other approval of Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) technology by a nuclear regulator."

The classification requirements were launched during a forum held at ABS's world headquarters in Texas for nuclear industry leaders held jointly by ABS and Idaho National Laboratory (INL). The event saw presentations on the latest reactor technologies from leading companies and publication of a detailed study from ABS and Herbert Engineering modelling the design, operation and emissions of a floating nuclear power plant. It was followed by workshops with offshore industry leaders to explore their requirements and understand operational challenges floating nuclear power plant technology will have to overcome.

"We demonstrated today that nuclear's potential in the maritime domain is so much more than a reactor on a ship," said ABS Chairman and CEO Christopher Wiernicki. "Nuclear energy can link energy demands across the electric, industrial and shipping transportation sectors to optimise energy generation and use, maintain grid reliability and support decarbonisation of shipping and industry. Not to mention its vast potential for the production of clean fuels such as e-ammonia and e-hydrogen.

"It is clear that nuclear energy has the potential to be a disruptor for the maritime industry. This is why we are proud to produce the first comprehensive rule set for the industry as an important step forward for the adoption of the technology."

Brad Tomer, COO of the National Reactor Innovation Center headquartered at INL, added: "This is an exciting time for nuclear energy. Idaho National Laboratory is growing and working with industry partners like ABS to test and demonstrate advanced reactor technologies. Collaboration and discussions like these will be critical as we move forward in delivering the low-carbon, affordable and reliable power that nuclear energy provides."

ABS is a maritime classification society: an organisation responsible for establishing the minimum technical standards and requirements for maritime safety and environmental protection and ensuring their consistent application. Established in 1862, the organisation describes itself as a global leader in providing classification services for marine and offshore assets, with a mission to serve the public interest as well as its members and clients by promoting the security of life and property and preserving the natural environment. The organisation's history with maritime nuclear energy sources dates back to 1959, when the NS Savannah - the first merchant ship powered by a nuclear reactor - was approved under ABS Rules.

ABS said it is "playing a leading role in helping government and industry work towards the adoption of advanced nuclear technology in commercial maritime, including key research with the US Department of Energy (DOE) and multiple new technology qualification and approval-in-principle projects with industry."

The DOE has awarded ABS a contract to research barriers to the adoption of advanced nuclear propulsion on commercial vessels. The DOE has also contracted ABS to support research into thermal-electric integration of a nuclear propulsion system on a commercial vessel being carried out by the University of Texas.

IsoEnergy is to acquire Anfield Energy - owner of the licensed and permitted Shootaring Canyon uranium mill in Utah - while Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp has agreed to purchase the Pinon Ridge Corporation, whose Colorado site has previously been licensed for a uranium mill.

IsoEnergy and Anfield announced on 2 October that IsoEnergy will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Anfield by way of a court-approved plan of arrangement, in a transaction which is expected to complete in the fourth quarter of this year subject to satisfaction of the conditions. The "implied fully-diluted in the-money equity value" of the transaction is about CAD126.8 million (USD93.6 million), the companies said.

The companies said their combined portfolio of permitted past-producing mines and development projects in the western USA is expected "to provide for substantial increased uranium production potential in the short, medium and long term". Combined current mineral resources of 17.0 million pounds U3O8 (6539 tU) in the measured and indicated category, 10.6 million pounds in the inferred category, and historical mineral resources of 152.0 million pounds U3O8 (measured and indicated) and 40.4 million pounds (inferred) will make the proforma company "among the largest" in the USA, with operational synergies between projects in Utah and Colorado as well as a "robust pipeline" of development and exploration-stage projects in tier-one uranium jurisdictions, including in Canada’s Athabasca Basin.

Shootaring Canyon is one of only three licensed and permitted conventional uranium mills in the USA. The mill has been on standby since 1982, but earlier this year Anfield submitted a production reactivation plan - including an application to increase its licensed capacity from 1 million to 3 million pounds U3O8 - to the State of Utah's Department of Environmental Quality, targeting a potential restart for 2026. Existing toll-milling agreements with Energy Fuels at the White Mesa Mill provide additional processing flexibility for current IsoEnergy mines, the company noted.

Western eyes second mill at Pinon Ridge

Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp said its acquisition of 100% of the shares of the Pinon Ridge Corporation (PRC) through a binding stock purchase agreement is part of its plans for developing and licensing one or more uranium and vanadium processing facilities to process production from its resource properties in Colorado and Utah.

The PRC property, which includes historic uranium production sites and exploration projects, has been previously licensed for a uranium mill and Western said the acquisition is part of its plans for developing and licensing "one or more uranium and vanadium processing facilities" to process the output from its resources in Colorado and Utah. This multiple site approach will optimise transportation and processing costs, it says, and notes that the Colorado site is about 25 miles its flagship Sunday Mine Complex.

Former owner Energy Fuels had planned to build a 500 tonnes per day mill at Pinon Ridge, receiving a licence from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) in 2011. However, Energy Fuels subsequently acquired the operational White Mesa mill, and in 2014 it sold Pinon Ridge to a private investor group led by Baobab Asset Management and former Energy Fuels president George Glasier. Glasier is now the president, CEO and a director of Western. As Glasier and his wife now own 50% of the shares of PRC, with another director of Western indirectly owning 3%, the negotiations and approval of the agreement to acquire PRC has been overseen by an independent committee comprised of directors "who are not considered to have an interest in the transaction".

The issuance of the mill's radioactive materials licence was challenged by several environmental groups and in 2018, the CDPHE decided to revoke the licence rather than hold further hearings on the issue.

The preliminary engineering design that has now been developed by Precision Systems Engineering for Western's proposed Utah mill may be utilised at both proposed sites, the company said. The proposed mill will include a kinetic separation circuit to separate mineralised rock from waste rock in a pre-milling process.

The Salt Production Facility at the company's new Manufacturing Development Campus near Albuquerque will produce high-purity, molten salt coolant for its advanced reactors.

Kairos Power’s fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor technology (KP-FHR) is cooled by a chemically stable mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride salts known as Flibe. The Salt Production Facility will employ a proprietary chemical process to produce large quantities of high-purity Flibe enriched in Lithium-7 that will meet the stringent specifications to be used inside a reactor, the company said. The first-of-a-kind plant will enable future process optimisation and establish the competency to scale up reactor-grade Flibe production for the commercial fleet, it added.

In line with Kairos's iterative approach to development, the new facility will build on the lessons learned from the Molten Salt Purification Plant (MSPP) where the company, in partnership with Materion Corporation, produced 14 tonnes of unenriched Flibe for the company's non-nuclear Engineering Testing Unit-1 (ETU-1). The MSPP, in Elmore, Ohio, was itself the first plant ever built to produce Flibe at an industrial scale. ETU-1 completed more than 2000 hours of pumped salt operations before entering decommissioning earlier this year.

The Salt Production Facility is receiving support from the City of Albuquerque and the State of New Mexico via economic incentives approved in September, and will also use funding from the US Department of Energy's Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program in addition to the "substantial" private investment. It is expected that construction and operation of the facility will create 20-30 full-time jobs. The project’s general contractor is TIC-The Industrial Company, a subsidiary of Kiewit Corporation.

At the same time as the ground-breaking for the Salt Production Facility, Kairos also held a dedication ceremony for its Manufacturing Development Campus, part of which is being built on the site of a former solar panel factory. The campus will host facilities for advanced reactor component manufacturing, U-stamped pressure vessel production, modular reactor construction, fuel fabrication process development, large-scale, non-nuclear testing and more.

"The facilities we are building in Albuquerque will play a pivotal role in deploying Kairos Power's clean energy technology with robust safety at an affordable cost," Kairos Power Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Ed Blandford said. "With the addition of molten salt coolant production, Kairos Power's Manufacturing Development Campus will soon have all the capabilities we need to deliver the Hermes demonstration reactor and establish a credible path to scale up production for the commercial fleet."

Kairos began site preparation work for Hermes, a demonstration version of the KP-FHR, at Oak Ridge, Tennessee in July. The unit is scheduled to be operational in 2026, with a two-unit electricity-producing plant to follow.

General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced it has completed preliminary development of four individual performance models in support of its SiGA silicon carbide composite nuclear fuel cladding technology.

GA-EMS is near completion of a 30-month contract with the US Department of Energy (DOE) to deliver individual models for nuclear-grade SiGA materials to form the basis of a future digital twin. This is a modelling and simulation capability intended to help accelerate the process of nuclear fuel qualification and licensing for current and next generation reactor materials.

SiGA is a silicon carbide (SiC) composite material which, because of its hardness and ability to withstand extremely high temperatures, has been used for industrial purposes for decades. It now forms the basis for the development of nuclear reactor fuel rods that can survive temperatures far beyond that of current materials, such as zirconium alloy.

GA-EMS said the four individual physics-informed models it has developed capture the complex mechanical response of SiGA cladding while exposed to irradiation. A multi-scale modelling approach was taken where each individual model covers a different length scale – from a mechanism-based microscale model to a reactor system level model. In future work, these individual models will be combined into one integrated model called a digital twin.

"A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical object or system - in this case our SiGA cladding nuclear fuel system," said GA-EMS President Scott Forney. "When complete, this digital twin will allow us to predict SiGA performance within a nuclear reactor core, reducing fuel development and testing costs and reducing the time it will take to get regulatory approval for this revolutionary technology, without sacrificing safety."

"We have been able to expedite development and verification of the individual models by leveraging the expertise at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory," said Christina Back, vice president of GA-EMS Nuclear Technologies and Materials. "Our work integrally involves dedicated laboratory testing as we develop each performance model. We look forward to continuing to the next phase to bring these individual models together and incorporate them into a greater digital twin framework. Utilisation of the framework to apply the separate effects models appropriately will bring a new level of sophistication and accuracy to efficiently predict fuel performance."

GA-EMS has successfully created silicon carbide nuclear fuel cladding tubes. The company's technology incorporates silicon carbide fibre into its cladding. The combination creates an incredibly tough and durable engineered silicon carbide composite material which can withstand temperatures up to 3800°F (2093°C) - about 500 degrees hotter than the melting point of zirconium alloy.

In July, General Atomics announced it had manufactured the first batch of full-length 12-foot (3.6m) SiGA silicon carbide composite tubes designed for pressurised water reactors. It had previously created 6-inch (15cm) long SiGA rodlets and 3-foot (91cm) cladding samples that meet stringent nuclear power reactor-grade requirements and will undergo irradiation testing at DOE's Idaho National Laboratory.

GA originally developed its SiGA composite for its Energy Multiplier Module (EM2) small modular reactor design. This is a modified version of its Gas-Turbine Modular Helium Reactor (GT-MHR) design.

In February 2020, Framatome and GA agreed to evaluate the feasibility of using SiGA in fuel channel applications through thermomechanical and corrosion testing. The long-term goal is to demonstrate the irradiation of a full-length fuel channel in support of licensing and commercialisation.

Sellafield Ltd will have to pay almost £400,000 after it pleaded guilty to criminal charges over years of cybersecurity failings at Britain’s most hazardous nuclear site.

The state-owned company, operator of the vast nuclear site Cumbria, northwest England, left information that could threaten national security exposed for four years, according to the industry regulator, the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), which brought the charges. It was also found that 75% of its computer servers were vulnerable to cyber-attack.

Sellafield Ltd had failed to protect vital nuclear information, Westminster magistrates court in London heard on Wednesday (2 October).

Chief magistrate Paul Goldspring said that after taking into account Sellafield Ltd’s guilty plea and its public funding model, he would fine it £332,500 for cybersecurity breaches and £53,200 for prosecution costs, a total of £385,700.

The offences related to Sellafield Ltd’s management of the security around its information technology systems between 2019 to 2023 and its breaches of the nuclear industry security regulations.

An investigation by the ONR found that Sellafield Ltd failed to meet the standards, procedures and arrangements set out in its own approved plan for cyber security and for protecting sensitive nuclear information.

Regulator Points To ‘Significant Shortfalls’

Significant shortfalls were present for a considerable length of time, said the ONR.

In a written witness statement referred to in an earlier hearing on 8 August Euan Hutton, chief executive of Sellafield Ltd, apologised for failures spanning years.

Hutton said: “I again apologise on behalf of the company for matters which led to these proceedings… I genuinely believe that the issues which led to this prosecution are in the past.”

In June Sellafield Ltd pleaded guilty to three criminal charges brought by the ONR over the IT security breaches.

One of the charges was that it failed in March last year to “ensure that there was adequate protection of sensitive nuclear information on its information technology network”.

The other two charges related to failures to arrange “annual health checks” for its systems.

Sellafield Ltd is owned by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, a UK government body set up specifically to deal with the country’s nuclear legacy.

The Sellafield site is one of the largest and most hazardous nuclear facilities in Europe.

It comprises of a range of nuclear facilities, including redundant facilities associated with early defence work, as well as operating facilities associated with the Magnox reprocessing programme, a mixed oxide fuel plant and a range of waste treatment plants.

It began life in the early 1950s making plutonium for nuclear weapons, and later that decade became the location of Calder Hall, the world’s first commercial nuclear power station.

France's Naarea has entered into a strategic partnership with EO Concept to explore the use of Naarea's XAMR molten salt fast neutron microreactor for the production of hydrogen and/or low-carbon electrofuels, particularly for heavy maritime applications.

Naarea said the partnership will also aim to evaluate the necessary conditions for ensuring competitive hydrogen and electrofuel production, while identifying the means of achieving these goals. It added that both partners are particularly interested in "exploring the advantages of high-temperature hydrogen production, made possible by the XAMR".

Naarea - formally established in November 2021 - says its ultra-compact molten salt fast neutron reactor uses "the untapped potential of used radioactive materials, and thorium, unused mining waste". Once it develops the XSMR reactor design, the company intends to target applications in areas such as transportation, agriculture and smart buildings. Naarea says that, because of the compact size of its reactor and because there is no need for it to be grid-connected, the XSMR can "be deployed as close as possible to regions, to match energy demand as closely as possible and allow the control of security of supply, at the service of industries and communities". It expects the first units of XSMR - which can generate 80 MWt/40 MWe - to be produced by 2030.

"We are very excited about collaborating with EO Concept through this strategic partnership," said Naarea founder and CEO Jean-Luc Alexandre. "Together, we share the same vision of a clean energy future, where innovation plays a central role in meeting climate challenges.

"Naarea's XAMR solution represents a breakthrough technology that, combined with Energy Observer's expertise in alternative fuels, will allow us to explore new avenues for producing hydrogen and electrofuels. This partnership embodies our shared ambition of proposing concrete, competitive and environmentally friendly solutions, and to actively contributing to achieving a just and responsible energy transition."

EO Concept - a subsidiary of Energy Observer - was created in 2023 as a research and development firm specialising in naval and port energy systems. EO Concept is developing the Energy Observer 2, a 160-metre-long cargo ship powered by 4.8 MW fuel cell systems using liquid hydrogen. It is designed to be the lowest carbon-emitting cargo ship in the world.

"We are looking forward to this collaboration with Naarea," added EO Concept General Manager Didier Bouix. "Together, we share a mutual commitment to implementing efficient solutions to meet real needs, in particular through energy ecosystems. The production of hydrogen through electrolysis and its liquefaction, in sufficient quantity and at a competitive cost on the target market, is a prerequisite for the deployment of our container ship Energy Observer 2. The XAMR represents a promising medium-term solution to round out the energy mix of tomorrow and reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from our modes of transport."

El Salvador, which is embarking on a nuclear energy programme, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission.

The memorandum of understanding was signed by the President of the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), Germán Guido Lavalle, and the Director of the Agency for the Implementation of the Nuclear Energy Program (OIPEN) of El Salvador, Daniel Alejandro Álvarez.

Guido Lavalle said: "This is undoubtedly a great step in the development of nuclear energy for El Salvador, and we at CNEA are proud to be able to accompany and assist in this very important initial stage, which will undoubtedly bring concrete benefits to Salvadoran society. Our long tradition of training human resources in the Latin American region, through our academic institutes, will be made available once again within the framework of an inter-institutional understanding, with great impact to generate local capacities and strengthen the applications of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes."

The agreement which was among a number of bilateral ones coinciding with the visit to Argentina by El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, includes promoting the exchange of information, scientific and technical visits, expert missions and training opportunities. The country's president announced in March the ambition to adopt nuclear energy.

At last month's IAEA General Conference in Vienna, Alvarez set out El Salvador's ambition to "diversify our energy matrix under three premises: Rely less on external resources, take care of the environment and, last but not least, transform the lives of our people, with affordable energy that allows them to fulfil their goals and dreams ... with the commitment to incorporate nuclear energy into our energy matrix, complying with the highest international standards and in accordance with the treaties that El Salvador has ratified before the International Atomic Energy Agency".

"Our country," he added, "through the peaceful use of nuclear energy, aims to promote and encourage the economic and scientific development of our population, allowing us to guarantee a reliable and sustainable supply of electricity; in addition to achieving, through the implementation of public policies, tangible benefits in areas such as: agriculture, health, industry, environment, among others."

Argentina has a long nuclear energy history. It has three operable reactors - the first of which began operating in 1974 - and one small modular reactor under construction. It has a number of research reactors and the RA-10 multipurpose reactor, a 30 MWt open pool type reactor, is currently under construction.

Japan will need to maximise the use of existing nuclear power plants as AI and data centres are expected to boost electricity demand, the new economy minister said, indicating no major shift in policy under newly appointed prime minister Shigeru Ishiba.

It is natural for Japan to pursue both nuclear and renewable energy to meet growing energy demand without increasing carbon emissions, said Yoji Muto, who was appointed to the role on Tuesday (1 October).

Muto said the new administration will plan restarting as many reactors as possible so long as they are safe.

He also said that Japan will need to protect its nuclear industry by developing next-generation reactors. The government is in the process of revising its energy plan that will dictate the power mix, which is currently 70% fossil fuels such as natural gas and coal, beyond 2030.

Muto’s comments point to a continuation of former prime minister Fumio Kishida’s policy that moved Japan back towards nuclear energy as a major power source.

Ishiba had said during his campaign that Japan should reduce its dependence on nuclear energy, but later said that he would support the restart of existing plants.

Kishida said before he left office that he was working on plans to restart units at Tokyo Electric Power Company’s (Tepco) Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power station.

Kashiwazaki Kariwa, the world’s biggest nuclear station with seven units and a net installed capacity of about 7,965 MW, has been offline since 2012 pending safety checks after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.

12 Out Of 33 Reactors Have Resumed Operation

Before the Fukushima disaster in 2011 Japan’s fleet of 54 nuclear plants generated about 30% of the country’s electricity, but were all shut down for safety checks following the accident.

Among the 33 operable nuclear reactors in Japan, 12 have now resumed operations after meeting post-Fukushima safety standards. The restarted plants are: Sendai-1 and -2, Genkai-3 and -4, Ikata-3, Mihama-3, Ohi-3 and -4 and Takahama-1, -2, -3 and -4.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency nuclear generated about 6.1% of the country’s electricity in 2022. The Tokyo-based Japan Atomic Industry Forum said recently that the fleet generated 81 TWh of electric power in 2023, about 50% higher than 2022.

International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Rafael Grossi has expressed his support for increasing Japan’s nuclear capacity and offered Japan technical assistance as its bids to restart Kashiwazaki Kariwa.

President Alexander Lukashenko told International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi Belarus would not "in our worst nightmare" seize Chernobyl and then be answerable for it.

The two men held talks on Tuesday during a visit by the head of the IAEA to the country, which also included a tour of Belarus's first nuclear power plant, which has been providing 25% of the country's electricity since its second unit entered commercial operation last year.

Lukashenko praised the work of the agency "related to the safety of nuclear power plants, especially those plants that actually ended up in the combat zone - Zaporizhzhia and Kursk" and added "you should know that we are committed to security, peace and we will do everything we can, everything that depends on us, to ensure regional nuclear security".

He then said there had been suggestions Belarus wanted to seize the Chernobyl nuclear power plant site, about 20 kilometres across its border with Ukraine, and said the idea was "complete stupidity ... we did not build, we did not service and we did not blow up. And the main disaster fell on a quarter of our territory. And we are still struggling with the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster". The Chernobyl nuclear power plant was built when Belarus and Ukraine were part of the Soviet Union. Since the accident in 1986, there has been an exclusion zone around the plant including areas on both sides of the border.

The president added that the country was looking forward to continuing to work with thje IAEA in the future on the safety and operation of its nuclear units and said they would be willing to share their experience with the IAEA and any country thinking of embarking on a nuclear energy programme because "we built it, figuratively speaking, from scratch. We had no specialists, no experience, no knowledge in operating a nuclear power plant. But we learned this, trained specialists in time".

The presidential website's report of the meeting quoted Grossi as saying: "I am particularly pleased to hear that at the highest level - at the level of the head of state - the most serious commitment to ensuring nuclear safety is being expressed. This says a lot - first of all, about the professionalism that your country has, having gone through a long path to becoming a power producing nuclear energy ... and it serves as an example of how a country can work with the agency, how closely it can interact with experts and missions of our organisation and show, in particular, the openness of your country" to the issue of nuclear safety.

The official Belta news agency reported Grossi as telling reporters afterwards: "We discussed a number of very important issues in an open and trusting atmosphere. First of all, this concerned the delicate situation in the region, the conflict in Ukraine, the challenges and dangers that the situation in the region poses. I was able to inform Mr President in detail about the work of the IAEA, which our agency has been conducting since the very beginning of the conflict, to ensure nuclear safety at nuclear power plants in Ukraine."

Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Viktor Karankevich, former Energy Minister, said, after the visit to the Belarusian nuclear power plant in Ostrovets: "Interaction with the agency will continue ... we have already started preparing the next IAEA mission on operational safety ... we intend to expand our cooperation in new areas, including in the field of radioactive waste management. The experience and achievements of the world community will be used in the framework of the project to build a national burial site for radioactive waste."

Grossi called it "a great honour and joy for me to finally visit Ostrovets after so many years of working together on this project ... the IAEA was involved in the Belarusian NPP project ... from the very beginning - on issues of choosing the location of the plant, developing rules for interaction in emergency situations, work in the initial operational stage. Now we have the opportunity to talk about supporting the plant ... we are ready to continue our communication within the framework of interaction on waste processing issues".

Nuclear power in Belarus

The existing Belarus nuclear power plant is located in Ostrovets in the Grodno region. A general contract for the construction was signed in 2011, with first concrete in November 2013. Rosatom began construction of unit 2 in May 2014. There are now six VVER-1200 reactors in operation in total, with four in Russia. The first Ostrovets power unit was connected to the grid in November 2020 and, the energy ministry says, the plant will produce about 18.5 TWh of electricity per year, equivalent to 4.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas, with an annual effect on the country's economy of about USD550 million. The second unit was put into commercial operation on 1 November 2023. Together they are generating about one-quarter of the country's electricity.

The country has been considering the option of a second nuclear power plant, with Karankevich saying in December 2023 that experts were looking into the costs and the requirements for future electricity capacity growth, saying: "We intend to reach 44 billion kWh of electricity in 2025. By 2030 we have to reach 47 billion kWh ... as we decide in favour of the second nuclear power plant or the third unit (at Ostrovet), we have to analyse the year 2040 instead of 2030 or 2035." He said that if a second nuclear power plant was built, Belarus would become a world leader in terms of share of its energy which comes from nuclear.

The Board of Directors at the US Export-Import (Exim) Bank has approved a final commitment for a USD98 million loan for pre-project services needed for the development of a first-of-kind NuScale small modular reactor in Romania.

Romania's small modular reactor (SMR) project is aiming for 462 MWe installed capacity, using NuScale technology with six modules at the former coal plant site at Doicești - about 90 kilometres northwest of Bucharest - each with an installed capacity of 77 MWe. The SMR project is estimated to create nearly 200 permanent jobs, 1500 construction jobs and 2300 manufacturing and component assembly jobs, as well as facility operation and maintenance jobs over the 60-year life of the facility.

The partnership between the USA and Romania on SMRs began in March 2019 with a memorandum of understanding between state-owned nuclear power corporation Nuclearelectrica and NuScale to study potential developments. In 2021, NuScale and Nuclearelectrica signed a teaming agreement to deploy a NuScale VOYGR-6 power plant in Romania by the end of the decade. In June 2022, the two companies signed a memorandum of understanding to begin conducting engineering studies, technical reviews, and licensing and permitting activities for the project.

NuScale Power and RoPower Nuclear - owned jointly by Nuclearelectrica and Nova Power & Gas - completed Phase 1 of a Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) study in late 2023, which analysed the preferred site of the first VOYGR-6 SMR power plant.

In July, Nuclearelectrica and RoPower Nuclear signed the FEED Phase 2 contract with Fluor Corporation of the USA for the Doicești SMR project. Under the FEED 2 contract, Fluor will provide RoPower Nuclear with the design and engineering services required for the implementation of the project, at the end of which there will be an updated cost estimate and schedule as well as the safety and security analyses needed for a final investment decision.

The Exim Bank issued a Letter of Interest in May 2023 for potential support for up to USD99 million to RoPower Nuclear for design studies - alongside expressions of interest from public and private partners from Japan, South Korea and the UAE – together amounting to up to USD275 million in early-stage support. These commitments, along with new pledges by Romania, support procurement of long-lead materials, completion of the FEED analysis, provision of project management experts, and regulatory site activities. In addition, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and Exim also issued Letters of Interest for potential support of up to USD1 billion and USD3 billion, respectively, for project deployment.

Exim's Board of Directors has now approved a final commitment for a USD98 million loan under its Engineering Multiplier Program for pre-project services. It is estimated that the transaction would support 400 US jobs.

As well as Nuclearelectrica, RoPower Nuclear, Nova Power & Gas (part of the E-INFRA group and joint owner of RoPower) and Fluor, Samsung C&T Corporation and Sargent & Lundy are also involved in works to facilitate the development and deployment of NuScale SMR power plants in Romania.

The Exim Bank is the USA's official export credit agency with the mission of supporting American jobs by facilitating US exports. To advance American competitiveness and assist US businesses as they compete for global sales, Exim offers financing including export credit insurance, working capital guarantees, loan guarantees, and direct loans.